Commerzbank Sees 10 Percent Drop in Renewable Energy Finance in 2015

renewable energy finance

Commerzbank AG, Germany’s second-largest lender, expects a 10 percent decline in renewable energy financing deals after a spate of offshore wind projects moved ahead last year. The lender this year plans to arrange new loans with a volume of about 750 million euros ($837 million), focusing on Germany, western Europe and the U.S., Ingrid Spletter-Weiss, the head of bank’s renewable energies unit, told reporters on Tuesday in Hamburg. This follows a surprisingly strong 2014, when wind projects were accelerated to nail down subsidies before the German government cut aid, she said. “You need to really fight for good projects now,” Spletter-Weiss said. “We are seeing much more competition, in particular in the offshore market, which many players still didn’t dare to enter last year.” Europe has more than 91 percent of the world’s offshore turbine installations. The region’s industry needs 10 billion euros by the end of 2016 to expand by about 20 percent, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) estimated on July 30. Commerzbank’s renewable energy loan portfolio stood at almost 4 billion euros at the end of last year with onshore wind still accounting for a 70 percent share. The share of offshore wind, which made up 5 percent of the total volume, will probably increase to 10 percent in the coming two to three years as growth in the onshore sector slows, Spletter-Weiss said. …